Transcription

Down Farnborough Kent

F. 8th

My dear Hooker

I have been a long time in thanking you for your examination of the operculum
curtain, but I have been very unwell for all last week, my
Father has been ill & my visit to Shrewsbury delayed
& all things gone on badly. Guided by what you saw, in a better & older
specimen, I saw nearly all which you did; I strongly suspect that the anastomising lines
are vessels. After you went, I could not resist going on with Conia & I have got
some capital horizontal sections one above the other which show the structure of the
shell & of the sutures, which are awfully complicated & I shall end by
having a whole plate of coloured drawings. Your coloured
section was a splendid thought: do not think, however, that I mean to fasten these other
sections on you, for I think I can well make Leonard
understand my meaning.

I, also, understand more about the operculum, over which we spent such hours, &
I fear that your beautiful pencil drawing must be altered: in those specimens, the whole
had collapsed.— I hope to Heaven I am right in spending such a time over one
object.—

I hardly know when I shall come to Kew for a morning to hear what you have to say about
my species-sketch: when there I shall get you to look over a
paper with me in the Annales S. Nat. on the Norfolk Isld
Flora—a very nice resumé, but it quite
omits all notice of the general affinities of the indigenous species, which I daresay by
running over the genera you cd tell. How I do
wish you had time to discuss all insular Floras, as far as present knowledge; what a
truly splendid paper you cd make—the African
islands—, Tristan d'Acunha Juan Fernandez, the Society
Isd which you have partly done.— But I suppose I must remain
content with wishing for it.—

All my plans are uncertain on account of Shrewsbury; I hope, however, to be up for the
Geolog. Anniversary, but whether to stay in London I know not.

You cannot tell how thorougily I enjoyed your visit here, & indeed profited by
it in many ways.— What a loose set of dogs you savans appear to have been at
your Club dinner on Monday.

Ever yours | C. Darwin

Should your future schemes ever become fixed, I mean about any expedition, pray let me
know early, for I much interested on that head.—

During Hooker's visit to Down he had assisted CD with his microscopical
examination of cirripedes. According to CD's ‘Journal’
(Correspondence vol. 4, Appendix I) he was studying the genus
Conia (Tetraclita).

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f2 1058.f2

CD visited his father in Shrewsbury from 19 February to 5 March
(‘Journal’; Correspondence vol. 4, Appendix
I).

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f3 1058.f3

In classifying Conia (a synonym for Tetraclita), CD primarily
relied ‘on the general outline of the opercular valves, and on the ridges and
crests on their under sides’ (Living Cirripedia
(1854): 327). Plate X in Living Cirripedia (1854) includes six
coloured drawings.

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f4 1058.f4

Samuel William Leonard, a member of the Microscopical Society, employed by CD to
prepare drawings of cirripedes (see Correspondence vol. 3, letter to
W. B. Carpenter, [October–December 1846], and letter to
J. D. Hooker, [December 1846]). However, all the plates in Living
Cirripedia are by George Brettingham Sowerby Jr.

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f5 1058.f5

Hooker probably took the fair copy of CD's essay of 1844 (DAR 113;
Foundations, pp. 57–255) home with him after his visit to
Down.

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f6 1058.f6

A review of Endlicher 1833 in the Annales des sciences naturelles
(Botanique) 2d ser. 3 (1833): 50–6, which contained a
list of the new genera of the plants found on Norfolk Island. CD made an abstract of the
article (DAR 72: 86–7), particularly noting the large proportion of plants not
common to neighbouring land and commenting: ‘Such facts are very good, as we
may feel sure in these cases not introduced from some foreign land & there since
exterminated—apply this to the Galapagos genera, where many
species.’ (DAR 72: 87v.).

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f7 1058.f7

The first of a series of annual dinners for the staff of the Geological Survey,
organised by Edward Forbes and held in London on 25 January 1847 (Wilson and
Geikie 1861, pp. 411–12).

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f8 1058.f8

Hooker was eager to undertake a botanical expedition either to the Andes or the
Himalayas. It was not until the autumn of 1847 that he was able to obtain
Government support for a journey to India (see letter to J. D. Hooker,
[6 or 13 October 1847], n. 1).